Kweisi

Born Frizzell Gray, Baltimore native Kweisi Mfume began his career as a political activist, first elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1979. After two terms on the council, in 1986, the Democrat was elected to the House of Representatives and went on to serve as the congressman from Maryland's 7th District for five terms. From 1996 to 2004 he was president and CEO of the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Since a failed bid for the Senate in 2006, Mfume has toured the country on public speaking engagements.

For most of the authors sitting pensively in the stalls of the Baltimore Book Festival, attracting passers-by to their titles was hard work. But not for Clifford the Big Red Dog, star of the children's book series of the same name. While strutting around Mount Vernon Square near sundown yesterday, Clifford suddenly came face to face with a sugar-fueled fan named Rhavyn Vines. Thrilled to be celebrating her sixth birthday, Rhavyn - her tongue painted blue from Italian water ice - charged and clamped her excited arms around his big red right leg. "CLIFFORD!"

The best thing for Baltimore would be Kweisi as mayor. The worst would be special-interest legislation to bring that about.Scientists share information. Weapons makers don't. Know which you are.The wall of separation between church and state has gates open wide in Maryland.Soon the electric power market will be as deregulated and confusing here as the telephones. What an improvement.Pub Date: 3/17/99

Efforts to create a campaign for shadow mayoral candidate Kweisi Mfume appear to be picking up steam, even as the NAACP president continues publicly to deny that he will run for Baltimore's top political post.Eight months before Baltimore's primary election, the city's mayoral contest -- the first in more than a decade without an incumbent -- is growing increasingly muddled.With the Mfume chatter, front-runners are not emerging. Would-be candidates are hesitating. And state lawmakers continue with their attempt to cut Baltimore's residency requirement for political office from a year to six months so Mfume can run.While many push for a Mfume candidacy, the president of the nation's most prominent civil rights organization is publicly distancing himself from the mayor's race.

Let city voters, not residency rules, determine next mayorThe voters of Baltimore will elect our next mayor. Whether a candidate has lived in the city for the 12 months immediately prior to the election is a factor that they can consider. It should not be an absolute bar to seeking the office.We are sponsoring legislation that would reduce the residency requirement for mayor of Baltimore from 12 months to six. The bill further provides that the City Council could enact an ordinance reaffirming the one-year standard, provided it does so no later than four weeks prior to the filing deadline for mayor.

If Hillary won't do it, they could always run Julian Bond for mayor of Baltimore.Everyone who is surprised that Chinese Communists would spy on this country, take two steps back and sit down.Advisers recommend doubling the president's salary to $400,000 to attract top candidates like Kweisi.There's nothing wrong with the drive to OC that another Bay Bridge wouldn't fix.Pub Date: 5/31/99

WILL the next mayor of Baltimore have a sweeping, 25th-floor view of the Inner Harbor and all that is his realm?Such speculation gains more credence every time Kweisi Mfume takes another small step that seems to indicate that he wants to be Baltimore's chief executive.It happened again last week when The Sun reported that Mr. Mfume is moving into a two-bedroom condo at Harbor Court. "Now he's running for sure," ran the gossip.Indeed, hardened politicians and observers don't believe Mr. Mfume's frequent disclaimers of non-candidacy.

You will know if it is really peace when the Kosovar people go home.The real George W. Bush is about to step forward. That will either close the Republican nomination, or open it up.The bonanza is so big for Maryland you have to be grateful to the tobacco industry for making it possible.Will Hillary Clinton turn out to be the Kweisi Mfume of New York?Pub Date: 6/04/99

That's some nice package they're putting together to entice the "reluctant" Kweisi Mfume into declaring his candidacy for mayor. The General Assembly loosened up the city residency requirements so the NAACP president, who had been living the last few years in Baltimore County, could run for mayor. (Mfume bought a condominium in the city last month.) The governor will probably sign the bill tomorrow.As a further enticement, some members of the City Council want to increase the mayor's salary from $90,000 to $150,000.

THE VACUUM left by Kweisi Mfume's decision not to run for mayor of Baltimore underscores how badly hopefuls for that office have failed in defining themselves. They must do better.Despite years in the public arena, front-runners Lawrence A. Bell III and Carl Stokes lack clear images. They have generated little enthusiasm because they don't have compelling political identities and have yet to articulate clear visions.Too many voters have little idea who Mr. Stokes and Mr. Bell are or what they stand for. Are they surprised that people pay scant attention to their views?

Some of the most prominent members of Morgan State University's Board of Regents have routinely missed meetings since at least 2000, a pattern of absenteeism that critics say robs the Baltimore school of key oversight at a time when it is under criminal investigation by the Maryland attorney general for its fiscal practices. Board members U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, former congressman Kweisi Mfume and prominent science education advocate Shirley M. Malcom have missed dozens of meetings in recent years, according to minutes from the board meetings that The Sun obtained through a public information request.

Born Frizzell Gray, Baltimore native Kweisi Mfume began his career as a political activist, first elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1979. After two terms on the council, in 1986, the Democrat was elected to the House of Representatives and went on to serve as the congressman from Maryland's 7th District for five terms. From 1996 to 2004 he was president and CEO of the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Since a failed bid for the Senate in 2006, Mfume has toured the country on public speaking engagements.

For most of the authors sitting pensively in the stalls of the Baltimore Book Festival, attracting passers-by to their titles was hard work. But not for Clifford the Big Red Dog, star of the children's book series of the same name. While strutting around Mount Vernon Square near sundown yesterday, Clifford suddenly came face to face with a sugar-fueled fan named Rhavyn Vines. Thrilled to be celebrating her sixth birthday, Rhavyn - her tongue painted blue from Italian water ice - charged and clamped her excited arms around his big red right leg. "CLIFFORD!"

Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's rise to the City Council presidency has sparked a spirited political battle in her old council district, where three candidates are campaigning to unseat her replacement in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary election. Sharon Green Middleton has held the 6th District seat since February, when the City Council selected her to fill out the rest of Rawlings-Blake's term. She is a former teacher and the wife of Glenard S. Middleton Sr., a statewide leader in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley debuted his 42-member transition team yesterday, a Democrat-dominated coalition that includes several labor, education and environmental leaders who spent the last four years of a Republican administration on the outside looking in. "We are reaching out throughout our entire state to find the best men and women we can possibly find to do the very, very important work of moving our state forward," O'Malley said during a Baltimore...

Baltimore City Council President Sheila Dixon, who will become the city's first female mayor if Martin O'Malley is elected governor next month, has quietly been making a series of changes to staff and style in recent weeks to prepare for the transition of power - just in case. Unable to sit on the sidelines of this year's gubernatorial election between O'Malley and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Dixon is shaking up her management team, intensifying her public schedule and becoming more vocal on a number of key issues, from low-income housing to a proposed citywide ban on smoking.

An 18-month campaign was condensed into a sprint of hand-shaking, picnics and speeches yesterday for Maryland's leading Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, as they made last-minute appeals for their supporters to vote in tomorrow's primary election. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and former congressman Kweisi Mfume, locked in what most polls show to be a competitive race to be their party's nominee to replace retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, made a dozen campaign stops between them yesterday in what, because of today's anniversary of the Sept.

At the risk of sounding egocentric, I feel like I'm at the city's epicenter of Tuesday's Democratic primary. My house just west of Wyman Park puts me not only at the edge of the 40th legislative district, the most hotly contested of Baltimore's six General Assembly districts. It also puts me in a corner of the convoluted 3rd Congressional District, the most competitive of the three U.S. House of Representative districts that include parts of the city -- and, indeed, of the eight in the state.

The old friends-turned-sparring partners danced around the ring last night, each more intent on showing off his own moves than on landing any major blows on his opponent. For the few times during the debate that former Rep. Kweisi Mfume attempted a jab at Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin - criticizing a vote on the USA Patriot Act, for example, or his acceptance of donations from corporate interests - Cardin held Mfume closer, describing for viewers their long friendship and their work together as congressional colleagues.

With 12 days until the primary, Democratic Senate candidates Kweisi Mfume and Benjamin L. Cardin will face off tonight in a televised debate that gives the former congressional colleagues a high-profile opportunity to distinguish themselves before a wide audience. It's "do or die" time for Mfume, who has trailed Cardin in polls, according to Zach Messitte, assistant professor of political science at St. Mary's College. SENATE Mfume proposes health insurance for all. pg 5b